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>Metablog?

>In an obituary of Arthur Miller on February 11, Sheila Lennon of the Providence (R.I.) Journal writes:

Arthur Miller, literary giant, Marilyn Monroe’s ex: Arthur Miller, author of Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, The Misfits, After the Fall and much more, died last night at his home in Roxbury, Conn., of heart failure at 89.

In his 1987 autobiography, Timebends, Miller wrote of Monroe, “To have survived, she would have had to be either more cynical or even further from reality than she was,” he wrote. “Instead, she was a poet on a street corner trying to recite to a crowd pulling at her clothes.”

Blogger Clifford Garstang (Perpetual Folly) of Staunton, Va., has the current issue of Harper’s on his desk, which contains a new Miller short story, Beavers. Garstang writes,…I liked it because it is, nominally, about a man who feels guilty for having to kill the beavers who are threatening to devastate a wooded slope. It struck me because I have from time to time had the same problem, and felt bad about killing the beavers. But what are the options.But of course that isn’t really what the story is about.

“Or was it all much simpler: did he simply wake one morning and with infinite pleasure start swimming through the clear water when, quite by chance, he heard the trickling of the overflow and, steering himself over to it, was filled with desire to capture the lovely wet sound, for he adored water above all things and wished somehow to become part of it, if only by capturing its tinkle? And the rest, as it turned out, was unforeseen death. He had not believed in his death. The shots fired into the water had not caused him to flee but merely to dive and surface again a couple of minutes later. He was young and immortal to himself.”

About

Clifford Garstang is a fiction writer and former international lawyer. His first novel, THE SHAMAN OF TURTLE VALLEY, will be published in May 2019. His novel in stories, WHAT THE ZHANG BOYS KNOW, won the Library of Virginia Literary Award for Fiction. He is also the author of a story collection, IN AN UNCHARTED COUNTRY, and the editor of three anthologies, EVERYWHERE STORIES: SHORT FICTION FROM A SMALL PLANET, Volumes I, II, and III.

Cliff's Upcoming Events

Embracing Power: Women and the SupernaturalWednesday, 20 March 2019 14:00Cliff will be moderating a fiction panel at the 2019 Virginia Festival of the Book featuring Jessica Handler (The Magne@ Barnes & Noble, Charlottesville

Fiction: Seeking New Lives, ElsewhereFriday, 22 March 2019 12:00Cliff will be moderating a panel at the Virginia Festival of the Book featuring Marina Perezagua (The Story of H), Chris@ Central JMRL Library, Charlottesville

High Road FestivalSaturday, 23 March 2019 Cliff will be speaking at Press 53's High Road Festival of Poetry and Short Fiction in Winston-Salem, NC.@ Marriott Hotel, Winston-Salem NC